


Sick Days on Pandora

by Citis



Category: Borderlands
Genre: Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Jack is a helpless hologram, M/M, Rhys is sick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-25
Updated: 2015-11-25
Packaged: 2018-05-03 16:42:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5298698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Citis/pseuds/Citis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Rhys gets sick, Jack, still a hologram, freaks out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sick Days on Pandora

**Author's Note:**

> Fic via a promt from melodicsiren over on Tumblr.  
> Originally posted to Tumblr, but I want everything here for better organization.
> 
> Rated T because of one thing Rhys says (which even then is up for debate).

Pandora made him sick. Literally, absolutely sick. Sneezing, coughing and overall aches and pains. It had been at least a year since he set foot on Pandora, but he was always getting a cold and there was very little he could do about it except tough it out.

 

It had been a year, and every time, Rhys could tell Jack -- who was still a hologram -- worried and fretted over him. He could tell in the way the skin above his mask would bunch together, indicating knit brows, how he would stare at the ground and pace, how he would turn to harsh static before coming back in full clarity.

 

Never once, though, had Jack ever came up to him, preferring to think that his worrying wasn’t obvious.

 

“Your pacing is driving me insane, Jack,” Rhys groaned, throwing his head back onto his pillow.

 

“Hey, kitten, I’m doin’ my own thing. You do yours. You...work on getting better or whatever it is you do.”

 

“You’re worried.”

 

“Hey-ey-ey, don’t go there, Rhysie,” Jack ceased his pacing and pointed sternly, “don’t go there.”

 

“What’re you gonna do? Fight me?” If he wasn’t sick, he’d have made a dramatic, intimidating pose. “Don’t fight me, I changed my mind.”

 

Rhys rolled and closed his eyes, sniffling and struggling to breathe.

 

Jack, noticing the opportunity, quickly stepped over to Rhys, holding out a hand over the company man’s forehead. Obviously he couldn’t feel anything at all due to his holographic state, and this frustrated him. Rhys had kicked him out of his systems, so he couldn’t control anything. “Hey, Rhys, kid, lemme in.”

 

“Ugh, no, last time you tried to kill me.”

 

“That was an accident.”

 

“You “accidentally” tried to kill me.”

 

“Just lemme in.”

 

“Fine,” it was a struggle for Rhys to get his ECHO implant to accept Jack, entirely due to his illness.

 

When Jack was in, he took control of Rhys’ cybernetics, bringing the robo arm up to his forehead. Rhys shivered from the chill of the metal on his heated skin, but he didn’t mind it much when Jack made a satisfied noise. There were sensors in the cybernetics, sensors that let him feel the heat of Rhys’ fever. But as was the usual with Jack, a cute moment never lasted, since they were always followed by comments. “Yep, you’re definitely sick, kid.”

 

“Thanks, Jack, I never would have figured that one out.”

 

After a length of awkward silence, Jack went back to pacing. He observed his surroundings, but found absolutely nothing that could help Rhys. “You put yourself in a shithole. You don’t even have any soup!” Jack reached for a cabinet, but before his holographic hand could phase through the handle, Vaughn came in.

 

“Hey, bro, I got your message. I brought you some soup,” Vaughn set the container down on the table next to Rhys. “A hundred percent normal, a hundred percent delicious. Prepared by Sasha herself.”

 

“Maybe there’s a little room for concern there, man… It _is_ Sasha. It smells good, though,” he smiled. “Thanks, I got it from here.”

 

“Yeah, you just send a message my way if you need anything else.”

 

Jack had come up to Vaughn and squinted at him during the entire conversation, and stared at his back when he left. “That little nerd gets to take care of you?”

 

Rhys popped the lid off the soup, stirring it around with a spoon Vaughn had provided for him. “Do you wanna take care of me, Jack?”

 

Throwing his arms into the air, Jack disappeared. Several minutes later, he reappeared. “We gotta talk, kiddo.”

 

Jack sat down on the chair next to Rhys’ bed, folding one leg over the other, leaning back with arms crossed over his chest. “It’s so so _so_ frustrating being a hologram, y’know? I can’t take it anymore. You gotta find me a body. I can’t just sit here and stare at you being all sick, knowing there’s -- okay, this is the sappy part -- something I could do.”

 

“Aww, you _do_ care,” Rhys smiled. “I’m still working on getting you a body. It’s just taking a while because something like this hasn’t exactly been done before. I’m also pulling ideas out of thin air, here.”

 

Rhys bounced ideas off of Jack as he ate his soup. Jack would make comments and Rhys would mentally cross off some items from the list depending on Jack’s reaction.

 

“You done with that soup yet?” Rhys nodded. “Move over, then, cupcake.”

 

The company man did as he was told, without giving it a second thought. Jack climbed into the bed, attempting to cuddle with Rhys, but it ended up being disappointing. “Hah, this is...awkward.”

 

“It’s cute. You’re trying your hardest to take care of me,” he reached toward Jack’s face, touching his metal hand to the outline of the hologram, frowning when there was no sensation. “I’ll get you a body, because --” Rhys stopped to hold back tears. “Because you’re a friend, you deserve at least that.”

 

“ _Just_ a friend, pumpkin? I thought you were obsessed.”

 

Rhys rolled his eyes. “Always gotta ruin the moment,” he laughed it off. “We’ll work on what we are. Once you have a body.”

 

“You better hurry up with that, Rhysie. Being a hologram isn’t any fun.”

 

“I wouldn’t think --”

 

“I can’t even _touch_ myself. Do you know how hard that is?”

 

Rhys chuckled. He’d definitely get Jack a body, and he’d definitely try to get one soon.


End file.
